How I Self Published my book part 2 Paperback

My last blog I talked about several of the challenges I faced with self publishing. This blog I am going to discuss what I did to get a paperback version of my book.

Amazon or Createspace? Last time I hadn’t decided which company I wanted to work with. Amazon offered a print on demand like Createspace. Here are some of the differences that I noticed.

Amazon was able to use the same files you uploaded for your e-reader. The cover creator was very simple and easy to use. They provided a free ISBN number. They did not offer your book to any other distributors. They did not have a discount for authors to buy their books. Authors would have to pay full price and shipping. Amazon has a deal that if you buy books direct from Amazon worth $25, you will get free shipping.

Createspace has a template that you can download to make sure your work is the right format for their standards. They template is difficult for to use, especially if it is your first time. Give yourself several days to work on this. Basically, you take your work and cut and paste it into the formate. There are some glitches. There was a chapter that kept displaying the header, when it was suppose to be blank. I only had issues with that one chapter. No matter what I did, I couldn’t make it stop from showing up. Plus if I deleted it, the header on all the corresponding pages of that chapter and the previous chapter were also deleted. I am sure there must be some what to fix this, but I couldn’t find it. I checked several help pages to no avail. Eventually I decided I really didn’t need a header on each page and got rid of it. Createspace gives you a lot of extra pages, they can be deleted if you click the nonprinting button in your toolbar. Do not just backspace your pages where you want them, this will mess up your page numbers. Createspace provides you with an ISBN number for free. They also offer several other choices for a fee. Your book will be available for other distributors like Barnes and Noble and Libraries. Your book will also be available on Amazon. They offer a discounted rate for authors to purchase their books. They have a cover creator tool. There are some preloaded formats, but they allow you to upload your own cover.

Which one did I choose? Well it was a hard choice, but I decided to go with Createspace. The reason I chose them is the the discounted rate I would be able to purchase my book for. I am planning to go to cons and to hold book signing events. I will need to be able to buy my book in bulk and still be able to make some profit instead of being in the red.

Createspace does offer to a service to help you upload your work, but I am cheap. I did this myself.

The template is difficult, but with practice I believe I will be better and quicker at converting my work to their format. Make sure to give yourself several days if not at least week before you want to publish to convert your work. Createspace will let you see what your book will look like to preview. It will also inform you of any issue it detects. It takes about 24 hours for them to okay your work. They email you and inform you of any problems they see. Make sure you look through your work carefully. Pages numbers match. Headers are where they are suppose to be. There aren’t any large holes in your work. Once you’re satisfied, you will confirm it and it will be available 3 to 5 days on Amazon. Mine showed up the next morning on Amazon.

The cover creator is decent. I uploaded my own front and back. I used www.canva.com to create my covers. I used the kindle size and that worked for my print version. Once you upload it, check to make sure all the words and pictures are on their correctly and won’t get cut off on the sides. It may take you several tries to get it exactly the way you want it. You will also be able to decide if you want the glossy or matte finish for your cover. I went with matte because some of the reviews I saw over the internet recommended the matte finish over the glossy.

I placed an order for my books. I have not received them yet. As soon as they come in, I will post pictures of them and we can see how they look.